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Archive for May 5th, 2013
Getting rich off global warming
Posted by Salon: Alexander Zaitchik on May 5th, 2013
Salon: On the opening morning of the inaugural National Adaptation Forum, I was eating breakfast at a stand-up table in the exhibition hall when a mustachioed man of middle age plopped his cherry Danish next to my pile of conference literature, a mess of pamphlets and reports with titles like Getting Climate Smart: A Water Preparedness Guide for State Action, and Successful Adaptation: Linking Science and Policy in a Rapidly Changing World. The nametag dangling above the Danish identified the man as Michael...
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Indonesia: Court rules for palm oil company in controversial deforestation case
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 5th, 2013
Mongabay: An Indonesian court has ruled in favor of plantation company PT Kallista Alam in a lawsuit brought against the governor of Indonesia’s Aceh province for revoking the company’s license to develop palm oil plantations in a protected peat swamp forest.
The Banda Aceh Administrative Court said the governor’s earlier decision to revoke the permit was not legally binding as the case that led to the permit’s cancellation was still being considered by Indonesia’s Supreme Court, Mongabay-Indonesia reported...
In S. Illinois, residents debate economic lure of ‘fracking,’ preserving area’s rugged beauty
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 5th, 2013
Washington Post: This is the Illinois that many people never see -- the sparsely populated southern tip where flat farmland gives way to rolling hills, rocky outcrops, thick forests and cypress swamps.
Blacktopped county roads wend through no-stoplight towns. Locals speak in soft drawls and talk of generations who've lived on the same land or in the same villages. The remote and rugged Shawnee National Forest attracts hikers, campers and horseback riders, and offers a stark contrast to the rest of a state that...
Climate change good, bad for spring wheat
Posted by Great Falls Tribune: None Given on May 5th, 2013
Great Falls Tribune: Spring wheat planting in Montana is slightly late this year, but that goes against the grain of a long-term trend of earlier planting caused by rising temperatures, which could threaten and benefit the state’s top export commodity, according to researchers at Montana State University.
MSU wheat breeders documented the warming trend by looking at weather and crop data kept at agriculture research stations in Bozeman, Havre, Sidney, Creston, Moccasin and Huntley from 1950 to 2007.
Over the 58...
Southern California wildfire nearly 60-percent contained
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 5th, 2013
Reuters: A fierce wildfire that had threatened 4,000 homes northwest of Los Angeles was nearly 60-percent contained on Saturday as favorable weather conditions helped beat it back, officials said.
"We actually have a pretty good marine layer, which is like thick fog on the coast moving inland, cooler temperatures and higher humidity," Captain Dan Horgon of the Ventura County Fire Department told Reuters.
"That coupled with our efforts out there with our firefighters have made the situation quite a bit...
Wildfire Interactive Helps Track the Springs Fire Blaze
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on May 5th, 2013
Climate Central: With the weather lending a helping hand, officials were cautiously optimistic that the raging fire, called the Springs Fire, near Los Angeles was being brought under control as of late Saturday. Firefighters reportedly had contained more than 50 percent of the fire, as they were aided by calmer winds and cooler temperatures, and Sunday's forecast had a 20 percent chance of rain.
As the blaze is still being battled, you can monitor that wildfire with Climate Central's interactive map. The flame...
State of Siege: Mining Conflict Escalates in Guatemala
Posted by Upside Down World: Sandra Cuffe on May 5th, 2013
Upside Down World: With the world's attention focused on the on-again off-again genocide trial of former Guatemalan dictator Efraín Ríos Montt and his head of military intelligence in Guatemala City, there has been little international reporting on other events in the Central American nation. Meanwhile, as the trial continues, conflicts involving rural communities and Canadian mining companies are escalating, to the point that a State of Siege was declared last night. Fifty miles southeast of the capital, private...